Means and method of producing



June 1949- D. M PHERSON MEANS AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THREE-DIMENSIONALPICTURES Filed Sept. 16, 1946 STEREO PAIR LIGHT SOURCE l I VIEWINGSCREEN CAMERA LENSE AND PRISM UNIT iTlLL PICTURE OR RAME OF MOTIONPICTURE MOSAIC ELECTRODE OF IOONOSOOPE INVENTOR:

DUNCAN Me PHERSON i ATTORNEYS Patented June 7, 1949 I UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE MEANS AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THREE-DIMENSIONAL PICTURESDuncan McPherson, Los Gatos, Calif. Application September 16, 1946,Serial No. 697,234 Claims. (Cl. 88-16.6)

1 My invention relates to means and method of pointed out that it is mytheory the eyes do not producing three dimensional pictures, and insee afield of vision as do the lenses of a biocular cluded in the objects ofmy invention are: stereo-camera; the images or record produced by First,to provide a means and method of prothe camera is a record of the wholefield in stereo.

ducing three dimensional pictures which may be It is my theory that theeyes only see stereo effects observed as a still, as a motion picture,or as a 5 at the point of focal concentration; that is, at

television image, without necessitating the use by homologous points.

the observer of any viewing device designed to In other words, a stereopair is spoken of as isolate the eyes of the observer. two views as seenby one eye and by the other Second, to provide ameans and method ofproeye. While this is true of camera lenses,-lt is ducing threedimensional pictures which does not not true of the eye. An eye in focusmay scan require any change or alteration in a standard a wholelandscape, but unlike a lens it sees but motion picture projector ortelevision receiver, all a small region with any sharp definition andonly of the factors which produce the three-dimenat that small regiondoes the perception of depth sionalefiect being containedinthe motionpicture occur. Thus, as the eye scans a field of vision film or in thevideo signals received by the telethis small region or, in efiect, lineof joinder vision receiver. 7 changes its position giving the overallpicture in Third, to provide a means and method of prodepth which onesees, ducing three-dimensional pictures which requires It is the crux ofmy invention to produce this comparatively simple changes in astereo-camera condition in either a still picture or a moving or in aniconoscope or other television viewing picture. device in order toproduce the desired three- With reference to the drawings, Figurelrepredimensional effects. sents a stereo'pair of pictures I. Drawnthrough With the above and other objects in view, referhomologous pointsin these pictures are dividing ence is directed to the accompanyingdrawings, lines 2 which will be termed homologous dividing in which:lines. These lines divide the stereo pair into four Figure 1 is adiagrammatical view of a juxtasections A, B, C, and D. Sections'A and D,and posed stereo pair of pictures. I B and C, are complementary. For thepurposes Figure 2 is a diagrammatical view of the comof illustrating myinvention, I may select Sections posite or selected portions of a stereopair of pic- B and C. These sections are transposed as shown turesemployed to produce a three-dimensional in Figure 2 to form a compositep ct r 3 S p efiect. rated by a homologous line 2. Because of the factFigure 3 is a diagrammatical view of a section that the originalpictures were taken from two of moving picture film to illustrate themanner in aspects there is a slight mis-mating of the views which athree-dimensional effect is produced. along t e homolo ous lin hismis-matin i Figure 4 is a diagrammatical view showing the of course,exaggerated in the diagrammatical manner in which a stereo pair ofpictures may ll s rations. be projected on a screen to give athree-dimen- The composite picture, as sho n in Figure 2, sional effect.does not have any noticeable stereo effect. It is Figure 5 is adiagrammatical view illustrating e s ry to pr j he picture continuouslythe manner in which a stereo-camera is employed wh l moving thehomologous l e 2 k and to produce still pictures or motion ictureshaving forth, y i t nt projection f a se e of the illusion of threedimensions. pictures, as in a motion picture machine) so that Figure 6is a similar diagrammatical view of a in successive images thehomologous line is disiconoscope showing the manner in which it mayplaced some predetermined but slight amount. be adapted to produce apicture having the illu- For example, if the composite picture 3 ispresion of three dimensions. sented as a series of frames of a motionpicture Figure 7 is a diagrammatical view of a single film 4 thehomologous line 2 in successive frames picture element similar to Figure2 but showing is displaced a predetermined amount and therea differentmanner in which a three-dimensional o fore moves or scans back and forthacross the effect may be obtained. composite picture. Thus, the portionsB and C Figure 8 is another diagrammatical view showvary in area fromsome predetermined minimum ing another manner in which the three-dimentoa predetermined maximum. The line may sional efiect may be obtained.move completely across the picture or cause to Before describing myinvention, it should be move back and forth within a predeterminedrepicture.

gion. For example, if it is desired to concentrate the attention of theviewer at some particular region of the film the amplitude of themovement of the homologous line may be restricted.

The motion picture film, as shown in Figure 3, may be obtained directlyby means of an adaptation of a stereo-camera representeddiagrammatically-in Figure 5, such camera involves a pair of lenssystems 5 (preferably with parallel optical axes) which for my purposesdirect the incoming light through prisms 6 which cause the two fields ofview to converge until the two stereo views occupy the same area on theframe of the sensitized film I. Between the prisms and the film (or inany other plane passing through the light path from the lenses 5) thereis located a masking plate 8 having an aperture 9 of such size that itscreens out all but the desired complementary sections of the two views.Thus, as shown in Figure 5, the portions of the view representingsections A and D of the stereo pair and indicated A D are stopped by themasking plate 8,.whereas the portions of the view corresponding tosections B and C and indicated B C pass through the aperture, cross eachother to occupy the relative positions shown in Figures 2 and 3. It willbe noted that portions B and C are complementary and contiguous but notoverlapping, and the line of contiguity will contain photoelementalportions of the stereo-pair belenses 5. By moving the ing received bythe masking plate back and forth in the direction of the arrow, therelative proportions of the sections B and C may be controlled. In otherwords,

the homologous line 2 may be caused to move back and forth as succeedingframes are fed into position.

It is not necessary in order to produce a stereo or three dimensionaleffect to employ a moving pair such as shown in Figure 1 may beprojected through a suitable lens or lenses and a prism system 6 on to aviewing screen 10. Between the prisms and the viewing screen isinterposed maskin plate 8 having an aperture 9. The masking plate 8 inthis case is part of the projector, whereas in Figure 5 the maskingplate is part of the camera. The resulting picture on the viewing screen10 may thus be a still picture, but, by reason of and the travel of thehomologous line 2, gives the appearance of three dimensions. It may benoted that the stereo-pair being projected in the arrangement shown inFig. 4 need not be composed of transposed right and left prints, sincethe prism and lens system actually transposes the unalteredcomplementary portions of the stereo-pair. There is no necessity foralteration, dubbing or modification of the stereo-pairs as originallyphotographed or otherwise obtained, and instead complementary portionsof the stereo-pairs are used in their original, unaltered form.

My invention may be equally well adapted to television in one of severalways. For example, the television camera represented in part in Figure 6may employ stereo lens systems 5 and prisms 6 so arranged that the viewsare projected upon the mosaic electrode ll of an iconoscope l2 just asin Figure 5 the views are projected on a sensit zed film. A maskingplate 8 is suitably interposed in the optical system to screen outportions A and D of the stereo pair and the prism units are arranged tocross or interpose the sections B and C so that the resulting image Asrepresented in Figure 4, a stereo the movement of the masking plate 8 onthe mosaic electrode is essentially the image represented in Figures 2and 3. Such image is scanned by an electron gun and the resultingimpulses may be televised in the conventional manner and ultimatelyprojected upon a kineoscope. In all of the cases illustrated theresulting eflect is the projection of a scene, complementary componentsof which have been taken from two aspects, these scenes being joinedalong lines passing through homologous points and this line is caused tomove in time-space sequence across all or a portion of the entire sceneso that the two complementary sections of the scene are continuallychanging in area.

It is preferred that the homologous line extend vertically across thepicture, however, the homologous line may extend horizontally asindicated by H in Figure 7 or diagonally as indicated by IS in Figure 8.

Many other embodiments of the invention may be resorted to withoutdeparting from the spirit oi the invention.

I claim:

1. A method of producing an apparently threedimensional image,characterized by the steps of viewing a scene from at least two aspects,transposing said views, selecting complementary unaltered portions ofsaid views to produce a single composite image, the complementaryportions being slightly mismated along a line of contiguity in suchcomposite; producing a series 0! such composites, each includingcomplementary unaltered portions slightly mismated along a line ofcontiguity, the composites of such series differing from each other inthat the relative areas of complementary portions vary progressively insuch series; and exhibiting the series of said composites.

2. Ameans for producing on a two-dimensional viewing surface, theimpression of three-dimensional images, comprising: means for producinga series of stereo-pairs of pictures of a scene, each stereo-paircomprising a pair of pictures diiIering in aspect of the scene; meansfor projecting an unaltered portion of each picture of a stereopair,said unaltered portions being complementary and capable of beingcombined along a line of contiguity, said projecting means beingarranged to project such complementary portions of stereo-pairs in rapidsuccession upon a viewing surface; and means for varying the relativeareas of said unaltered portions during said successive projection tocause photoelemental parts of the scene along the line of contiguity tobe substituted by homologous photoelemental parts in the course ofprojection of said series and impart to the observer the impression ofdepth and three dimensions. Y

3. Means of character stated in claim 2, wherein the means for varyingthe relative areas of unaltered portions oi successive stereo-pairscomprises a masking plate and means for reciprocating the same in a.plane parallel to the plane of the stereo-pairs being projected.

4. In a method of producing dynamic pictorial representations havingthree-dimensional characteristics from static stereo-pairs of pictures,the steps of: simultaneously projecting complementary portions ofstereo-pair pictures in rapid succession, each portion so projectedbeing a complete, unaltered portion of the original picture; saidsimultaneously projected complementary portions havin photoelementalimage areas along a line of contiguity; and incrementally varying thearea of complementary portions suc- 5 cessively projected, to causerapid, substitutionary change of photoelemental image areas along a lineof contiguity between said projected compiementary portions, whereby theprojected pictures evidence three-dimensional characteristics to anobserver.

5. In a method of producing dynamic pictorial representations havingthree-dimensional characteristics, from static stereo-pairs of pictures,the steps of: simultaneously projecting complementary portions ofstereo-pair pictures in rapid w succession, each portion so projectedbeing a complete, unaltered portion of the original picture; saidsimultaneously projected complementary portions having photoelementalimage areas along a line of contiguity; successive stereo-pair picturesbeing composed of complementary portime having a line of contiguitydisplaced with REFERENCES CITED The following references are of recordin the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,673,793 Ames Jime 19, 19281,952,340 spivak Mar. 27, 1984 2,114,060 Oakley Apr. 12, 1938

